Why We Love the Mets

[Fman99]

Rockin' Doc wrote: Growing up, I don't recall ever having a single friend that was a Mets fan. I guess that is why I have liked hanging out here all these years.

This was me, also.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I was a kid in Manhattan in 1984. Some of the Yankees were cool-- I liked Rickey, and Mattingly-- but they were business-pinstripes and office haircuts; they were the team my friends' kinda-jerky dads rooted for. Gooden was literally larger than life (I passed by the Port Authority Nike mural whenever my Mom and I grabbed dinner in Hell's Kitchen, or went to visit cousins in NJ), and the Mets were blue and orange on green fireworks.

[Zvon]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I'm the ultimate bandwagon jumper on. I became a Mets fan the day after they won the 1969 World Series. A day or two before that, I had no idea what baseball even was.

dinosaur jesus wrote: Another '69 bandwagoner. I'm pretty sure, anyway. I have no memory of that season at all, but I know I was on board in 1970. I remember my father pointing to a story in the paper, with mug shots of a couple of Pirates (ugly bastards), and asking me if I was worried about the Pirates catching the Mets. I said "Nah."

Don't think of yourself as bandwagonjumpers. Like me, you are children of '69. If you were bandwagon'rs you'd have jumped off at some point. Even when I "turned my back" on the team in '77 I stayed on board, although from a distance. The bandwagon "type" could never stick with this team from 1970 til now.

It wasn't just 1969 that grabbed me. The whole Cinderella story with the teams history was also a big part of it. You just wanted to give the Mets a great big hug. I did that in 1970 and haven't stopped. I do believe that my '73 NLCS experience (gms 3,4,5) really provided the glue that made me stick to this team forevermore.

A Metsfanfriend read the game three story on the cardblogthing and sent me some photos that I had never seen before. This was when play was stopped to remove the Reds players families from the make-shift box section along third. That was so bizarre.
And I do believe that's me.

[Guest cooby]

Fman99 wrote: Rockin' Doc wrote: Growing up, I don't recall ever having a single friend that was a Mets fan. I guess that is why I have liked hanging out here all these years. This was me, also.

And me, except my dad and his friend Judy

[Guest cooby]

Avon great picture! I don't remember that though I watched those games two feet from the TV set.
Why did they move them? Safety? You had a good seat . Must have paid $$$$ for it lol

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: I figured it wasn't the canapés.

But the mead in the CPF Song Parody loser's lounge makes being a Mets fan worthwhile. And we have Ben to thank for it.

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: I'm the ultimate bandwagon jumper on. I became a Mets fan the day after they won the 1969 World Series. A day or two before that, I had no idea what baseball even was. dinosaur jesus wrote: Another '69 bandwagoner. I'm pretty sure, anyway. I have no memory of that season at all, but I know I was on board in 1970. I remember my father pointing to a story in the paper, with mug shots of a couple of Pirates (ugly bastards), and asking me if I was worried about the Pirates catching the Mets. I said "Nah." Don't think of yourself as bandwagonjumpers. Like me, you are children of '69. If you were bandwagon'rs you'd have jumped off at some point. Even when I "turned my back" on the team in '77 I stayed on board, although from a distance. The bandwagon "type" could never stick with this team from 1970 til now. It wasn't just 1969 that grabbed me. The whole Cinderella story with the teams history was also a big part of it. You just wanted to give the Mets a great big hug. I did that in 1970 and haven't stopped. I do believe that my '73 NLCS experience (gms 3,4,5) really provided the glue that made me stick to this team forevermore. A Metsfanfriend read the game three story on the cardblogthing and sent me some photos that I had never seen before. This was when play was stopped to remove the Reds players families from the make-shift box section along third. That was so bizarre. And I do believe that's me.

Neat pic! Did you go to the game with Gene Shalit?

[dinosaur jesus]

Zvon wrote: Don't think of yourself as bandwagonjumpers. Like me, you are children of '69. If you were bandwagon'rs you'd have jumped off at some point. Even when I "turned my back" on the team in '77 I stayed on board, although from a distance. The bandwagon "type" could never stick with this team from 1970 til now.

Oh, I know that, Z. And when you're a kid, and it's the first team you ever rooted for, that isn't really jumping on the bandwagon.

The other factor is that where I grew up, in central PA, the Mets were simply on TV more than any other team. We got WOR on cable; we also got WPIX, but they didn't show as many Yankee games, besides which they had ugly uniforms and weren't any good. And the stations that carried the Pirates and Phillies usually chose to show Dialing for Dollars or some shit instead.

[Guest d'Kong76]

The real bandwagoners for me (and my age) are the ones who jumped ship
in high school for Mr. October and Billy Martin's run. I remember a lot of friends
wandering the halls with sprained-ankle limps they got jumping ship so abruptly.
Of course, the other group (and it's a gigantic group) are the 'big baseball fans'
sect that bought Yankee hats around 1997 and rode that wagon for seemingly like
a freakin' decade.

[Benjamin Grimm]

When I was a kid, early 1970s, Smithtown, Long Island, just about every kid was a Mets fan, and a Tom Seaver baseball card was the Holy Grail. There were a couple of Yankees fans, but they were so rare they were looked upon as anomalies, like Protestants. (Almost everyone was either Catholic or Jewish. I remember being really surprised to learn that the majority of the country was Protestant.)

[Lefty Specialist]

My uncle took me to my first Mets game when I was little. I asked him why there were police on the field; they were the umpires.

A bright sunny day that lives on in memory. Everything was fresh and clean and exciting, and there was more grass than I'd ever seen in my entire life. That was 1968, and I was hooked. The next year they won it all, and being seven, just assumed it would continue forever. Foolish boy I was. Hung in through the late 70's/early 80's where they would rope off the upper deck because there were no paying customers. Celebrated 1986 with my girlfriend (now my wife). Survived bleach and cherrybombs in the early 90's. Took my son to Opening Day 1996 as a 7-month old, and he grew to worship Mike Piazza as only little kids can do. Made it through 2003, barely. Died as Beltran left the bat on his shoulder. Skyped with my son at college as we watched the Mets sweep the Cubs together, 200 miles apart. And right now desperately pine for any scrap of baseball news as pitchers and catchers draw closer, but not close enough.

It's easy being a Yankee fan. Takes more work to be a Met fan. You've got to really want it, because about once a decade they squeeze your testicles in a drill press. But when it's good, it's really really good. Two of the best memories ever, the Grand Slam Single and Endy's catch, were in series that they ultimately lost. That's something Yankee fans can never, ever relate to.

[batmagadanleadoff]

d'Kong76 wrote: The real bandwagoners for me (and my age) are the ones who jumped ship in high school for Mr. October and Billy Martin's run. I remember a lot of friends wandering the halls with sprained-ankle limps they got jumping ship so abruptly. Of course, the other group (and it's a gigantic group) are the 'big baseball fans' sect that bought Yankee hats around 1997 and rode that wagon for seemingly like a freakin' decade.

I have a friend like that. A Mets fan his whole life and then he went MFY around '96. The really disturbing thing about him is that he now denies that he was ever a Mets fan.

[Benjamin Grimm]

You should see if Bruce Boisclair still has any of the fan letters that your friend mailed to him in the late 70s. That will provide undeniable proof!

[Frayed Knot]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I have a friend like that. A Mets fan his whole life and then he went MFY around '96. The really disturbing thing about him is that he now denies that he was ever a Mets fan.

Very few things in my baseball fandom disturbed me as much as Met fans who decided that it was OK to root for those mid-'90s MFYs, that the fact they had 'Doc & Darryl' made them good guys and that most of the rest of the cast were unobjectionable too, and finally that Steinbrenner had now mellowed to the point of practically being a turtleneck and windbreaker clad Care-Bear.
If I actually believed in things like jinxes and karma I'd place all the blame for the decade-plus of MFY success on those supposed NYM-fans.

[Guest d'Kong76]

One of my bestest friends is one of those cork smokers. He rationalized
it that he was tired of not rooting for the Yanks because his father brain-
washed him (he was a Tiger fan from Michigan) and he was rooting for the
Yanks as some kind of son against father rebellion thing. I still bust his balls
about it, some things just stick in my craw.

[Edgy MD]

Mets poet Frank Messina wrote a brilliant verse story of finding a ticket stub that's at least a decade old while sifting through a drawer. It draws him back to memories of the friend, Tommy, he had gone to that game with. So he calls Tommy and invites him to join him at that night's game.

His friend is all, "Sure!" until he lets Frank know that there must be some kind of mistake, that the Yanks are in Boston. And Frank suddenly realizes that somewhere between marriages, Tommy has not only switched allegiances, but now denies that his Mets fandom ever existed, a fandom that stretches back to early childhood and was part of the glue of their long friendship together.

Frank ends up yelling and ranting at Tommy, reciting every piece of Mets clothing the guy wore to school events 30 years prior, Mets fantasies they shared, games they had been to, before cursing his faithless friend out and slamming down the phone.
The poem ends:

[list:lwohuncz]Well, what can you do?
Not everyone can be as normal as me[/list:u:lwohuncz]

[Ceetar]

MFS62 wrote: Edgy MD wrote: I figured it wasn't the canapés. But the mead in the CPF Song Parody loser's lounge makes being a Mets fan worthwhile. And we have Ben to thank for it. Later

speaking of which..

when do we get to leave? They told me we can leave when the winner is announced..

[Zvon]

Avon great picture! I don't remember that though I watched those games two feet from the TV set. Why did they move them? Safety? You had a good seat . Must have paid $$$$ for it lol

They moved them for their safety. At the time I thought it was an overreaction but looking back that was a very wise thing they did.

I had Mezz box, front row, right above left (sneaked down to where I am in that pic in game 5). Got all three tickets as a block (slept over at Shea to be in front of the line) and IIRC they were app. $7.50 each. So less than twenty-five bucks for all three tickets.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: When I was a kid, early 1970s, Smithtown, Long Island, just about every kid was a Mets fan, and a Tom Seaver baseball card was the Holy Grail. There were a couple of Yankees fans, but they were so rare they were looked upon as anomalies, like Protestants. (Almost everyone was either Catholic or Jewish. I remember being really surprised to learn that the majority of the country was Protestant.)

I lived in Smithtown from 1964 to 68.
32 Carnegie Drive, right off 25a. Dogwood Elementary.
And yes, my first exposure to the Mets was from friends there and I went to my first Mets game during that time, '68 IIRC. I guess you could say I was a peripheral fan of the game until 1970 when I became a serious fan of the game.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

d'Kong76 wrote: The real bandwagoners for me (and my age) are the ones who jumped ship in high school for Mr. October and Billy Martin's run. I remember a lot of friends wandering the halls with sprained-ankle limps they got jumping ship so abruptly. Of course, the other group (and it's a gigantic group) are the 'big baseball fans' sect that bought Yankee hats around 1997 and rode that wagon for seemingly like a freakin' decade.

I have to admit... it was, like, 8 or 9 years after the fact, but I was fascinated. Between the crazy-drunk manager and Reggie vs. RedAsses infighting, the Bronx Zoo MFYs were pretty compelling to a burgeoning baseball-history buff.

And-- maybe it was a function of being away from home at college and the fact that it was the fuggin' Braves-- I kinda didn't wish the MFYs ill in that first Series, either. My compass set itself right, though, about half an hour after Boggs-on-the-horse, as the MFY fan on my hall started taunting other baseball fans in mid-celebration. Like, he did an in-your-face victory lap less than an hour after his team won for the first time in a decade and a half.

[MFS62]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: the MFY fan on my hall started taunting other baseball fans in mid-celebration. Like, he did an in-your-face victory lap less than an hour after his team won for the first time in a decade and a half.

There's a story about a Texas judge who issued an acquittal in a murder case because the victim "just needed killin' ". That may be the case here.
Later

[Guest cooby]

I love how Zvon got the whole way down to the field from the mezzanine lol